Repertoire
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados:
Celebrating 150 years
The teaching of Enrique Granados
by Donald Alfano
I
n addition to being a great composer, Enrique
Granados was also a dedicated and innovative
teacher whose pedagogical approach has been
explored only recently. Many of his ideas were
not published during his lifetime, but rather entered
into his diaries, passed on to his pupils verbally, and
annotated on scores. Many of his pedagogical works
were, in fact, published for the first time in 2001
by Editorial de Música Boileau in Barcelona under
the direction of Granados's "grand pupil," Alicia de
Larrocha, with documentation by Douglas Riva.
Prior to this publication, Granados's published music
contained numerous inaccuracies.
In 1901, Granados founded an academy in
Barcelona. The academy still exists, is a center for
teaching, and contributes immensely to the city's
artistic community. Many notable musicians such
as Alfred Cortot, Artur Rubinstein, Emil von Sauer,
Manuel de Falla, and Wanda Landowska visited and
performed there. In order to create well-rounded
musicians, the academy offered not only piano, but
also other subjects such as solfège, music history, and
other literature courses. In terms of piano technique,
Granados's teaching is said to be revolutionary in
that his approach was more holistic and because
he incorporated the entire mechanism where the
fingers, hand, and arm worked as a unit. Like Deppe
and Matthay, he rejected the finger isolation practices
that were popular with many pedagogues, believing
that they were counterproductive and potentially
injurious. Moreover, the straining of the fingers in
execution could often lead to a brittle tone, which
was the opposite effect the Catalán School wished to
cultivate and not appropriate for this repertoire.
Granados believed that, regardless of talent, all students could learn to play the piano if they submitted
to his method. He stated, "I cannot be responsible for
the talent of my students, but if they work as they
should, I am responsible for their technique."1 It is interesting to note that Granados did not necessarily
assign the most demanding works of the literature to
illustrate his principles. These principles included variety and beauty of tone, adherence to rhythm, and
subtle pedaling, and Granados felt that works such
as the Schubert Impromptus and other shorter works
yielded the best results.
Although Granados did promote the use of the entire
mechanism in piano playing, it would be a mistake
to assume that he neglected the role the fingers had
in piano playing. In his 1905 treatise The Piano, the
five-finger patterns he assigned move sequentially
from the most basic to the more complex. The fivefinger patterns were done under supervision so that
the student did them with ease and without stiffness.
Granados indicates that they should be played hands
alone first and loudly with the metronome, quarter
note=80, and then hands together, also loudly, with
the metronome at the same speed. He then gives a
more complicated pattern in sixteenth notes to be
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Clavier Companion
July/August 2017